Ethan was great. One of my favorite professors. His assignments were pretty interesting and he was really passionate about programming, so he really tried to give you an idea of the concepts behind the code. He was also really quick to respond to emails and really helpful in office hours. TAs for this class are also really helpful, so figure out who the best ones are when you're taking it and go to their lab section/office hours! I had Jordan Price and Colin Togashi and they were absolutely wonderful.

I knew going into this class it was going to be difficult (in large part because I had not taken a programming class before), but boy oh boy was I in for a treat!

Where do I start?

The first day of class, I walked in and was pleased to see a very young (hahaha hilarious pun) charismatic, friendly professor ready to show us the ins and outs of MATLAB. After an introduction to the course, which included the thrilling experience of realizing that this class was not going to have a midterm (grade is solely based on homeworks and the final project), I was starting to like the guy. My positive first impression of him did not wane for the first few weeks as I hardly ran into any problems with the first few homeworks.

Inevitably, the class suddenly got quite complicated for me.

What most people will tell you is that Ethan does actually explain concepts pretty well during lecture, which is true. The problem with him is that what he teaches during lecture is perhaps 1/10th (if I'm being generous) of the difficultly that some of the homework projects are. He answers emails frequently, but he almost always responds with a very cryptic answer (I understand what he's trying to do; he is trying to get us to figure out the problem ourselves, but it usually just winds up in getting oneself even more confused than you were before).

But what is perhaps most frustrating about the class is that the TA's essentially wind up giving in since they see how confused we are. Some of them practically write up the exact code that you need in order to figure out the problem that you are having., which basically undermines all that Ethan is trying to accomplish.

Don't get me wrong, this guy can definitely improve, but he is far from being perfect. I can definitely see that this is a very difficult class to actually teach well, but that should not mean we give him a free pass to a high rating simply because he is charismatic and he can explain the easiest possible fundamentals to the class.

Most of the class at the beginning of the quarter did not raise their hand when he asked if we had taken a programming class before, so while some of you coding experts might be saying to yourself, "haha what a whining little ****," just remember that you also still have to write the godawful, pointless 10+ page reports for EVERY HOMEWORK, EVERY SINGLE WEEK.

JOKE'S ON YOU FOOLS!

In all seriousness, just remember one thing; being young, charismatic, and friendly does not maketh a great professor.

One of the most annoying classes of my time at UCLA. Project code and reports took upwards of 15-20 hours certain weeks. Ethan is a nice guy, but he acts like everything is easy when we are all struggling. Reports are extremely redundant. They should work on creating templates and fill in questions instead of having us write meaningless paragraphs and paragraphs (...and paragraphs).

If you have to take this class and you're not familiar with programming, expect a ton of work and a lot of confusion. Hopefully you have a TA that will actually give you help and intuition.

Ethan is a wonderful professor. Classes are interactive and interesting, and he clarifies any and all questions students have. M20 (same as CEE M20) is an introductory course, and the pace is as such. There are no exams but rather 8 homework assignments (weekly basis), and a final project that you have ~3 weeks to complete. The homework is 50% based on your code, and 50% on your report. The reports are mundane and long (~8 pages), but halfway through the quarter he told us to shorten our reports since the graders didn't want to read so much. Lectures are taught by Ethan are once a week, there is a discussion taught by a TA once a week, and there is a lab section once a week taught by your specific TA. Normally there are three problems per homework assignment, and at least two are gone over in depth during the lecture and discussion, so homework is never too difficult if you go to class or listen to the podcasts (lecture/discussion only). I would definitely recommend taking this class with Ethan!

Ethan is a fantastic professor. His lectures are well put together and extremely engaging. There are no tests, not even a final; your grade comes from 75% on the 8 homework assignments throughout the quarter and 25% on the final project. Each homework assignment is half coding (writing Matlab scripts) and half written report (explaining in English how your code works). This is a fantastic introductory programming class, much easier than CS 31. Ethan and the TAs walk you through the homework problems every week in lecture/discussion, so make sure you go to those (or watch the podcast). He is very helpful in office hours. He also makes it a point to teach the basic coding concepts which are applicable to all coding languages, not just Matlab. I highly recommend this class and Ethan as a professor!

This is a fantastic class. Ethan Young is a brilliant professor, is extremely good at explaining concepts and most importantly, is very helpful. This class was perfect in so many respects.Ethan manages to combine programming with very interesting mathematical problems. I didn't go to lectures very often, especially since lectures were podcasted.

Ethan is an incredibly helpful professor. He and the TA's respond very quickly to emails regarding questions on the projects, and they are very helpful when they respond. Just make sure that you explain your methods behind your thoughts in your script, and you will get a good response back. The homeworks (there are 8 of them) don't take that long, maybe 3-4 hours overall. I only went to the first lab section, my TA wasn't helpful, so I just did my homework during that time. I have zero coding background, so this was my first coding class. The final project was a bit trickier, but incorporated everything we've learned all quarter. I highly recommend Ethan for this course.

I've taken coding classes before and absolutely hated them. Somehow Professor Young has shown me that coding is actually a lot of fun! His real life application related to bioengineering make the class much more relatable and understandable. He was also very helpful when I had questions about code and pointed at certain lines that might have contributed in causing errors. Overall, I had a great experience with Professor Young and would have no qualms about referring other students to his classes.

Professor Young is incredibly engaging. He loves programming and wants everyone to succeed at it. The work consists of solving the problems he assigns by designing a code and then doing a writeup on why you did what you did. There were not any exams during the summer session when I took it. He is also incredibly open to offering help. I took the class online and it wasn't an issue not being physically at UCLA. He answers emails and for the final project, he had video chat office hours for people who were taking it online. His notes are easy to follow and you learn so much. Matlab is one of the most fun classes I have ever taken.

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